March Newsletter

The Importance of Children’s Funding Coordinators

In 2024, hundreds of millions of dollars in federal pandemic relief funding will expire, leaving communities scrambling to fill budget gaps. To secure stable and sustained funding, state and local leaders and advocates must understand funding for children and youth in their communities. Our recent webinar discussed how children’s funding coordinators can fill this role and champion meaningful and sustainable funding for children and youth.

Watch the Recording

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What’s New

Investing Early in Child Well-Being Gives King County Kids the “Best Start”

Our Senior Manager Reginald Harris sat down with Dow Constantine, executive of King County, WA, to discuss Best Starts for Kids, a voter-approved initiative that has supported more than 500,000 children, youth, and families since its inception in 2015. In 2021, voters renewed the fund’s levy with more than 62% approving the effort for another six years.

Watch the Interview

Photo Credit: Best Starts for Kids

Funding for Children and Youth in North Carolina

Join us and the North Carolina Budget & Tax Center on Tuesday, March 12, at noon ET for a webinar about the state's new fiscal map, which documents all federal and state-level investments in services and programs for children and youth in North Carolina, and how advocates are using it to support investments for kids.

Philanthropy’s Role in Strategic Public Financing

By investing in strategic public financing, philanthropy can play a vital role in ensuring that children benefit from the programs that can sustain learning recovery. Join Campaign for Grade-Level Reading and our CEO Elizabeth Gaines on Tuesday, March 19, at 12:30 p.m. ET for a webinar exploring the ways in which funders can work with state and local leaders to track, assess, and grow public funding to benefit children and youth.

Coming Together to Fund Our Kids

The Children's Funding Project team gathered in New Orleans last month for our 2024 staff retreat. During our trip, we met with some of the child and youth partners we work with in New Orleans to hear firsthand how they are helping fund kids’ programs. From visits to successful programs like Café Reconcile and Wilcox Academy, to discussions about systemwide improvements with the city's early

childhood education millage and Youth Master Plan, New Orleans' youth advocates did not disappoint.

In Case You Missed It

New Team Members

We recently welcomed our two new vice presidents, Januari Bradley, vice president of people and culture, and Julie Nicholson, vice president of implementation and impact. Olivia Allen, our co-founder and long-time strategy director, also will become our new vice president of strategy and advocacy.

Meet the Team

National Trends in State Funding for Children and Youth

How much do states spend on programs and services for kids? Our new national analysis answers this question and explores findings from our fiscal work with 14 state partners. It also includes individual fiscal maps of state, federal, and federal relief funding invested in kids.

Explore the Analysis

Spotlight on Rural Funding

It shouldn’t matter whether a kid lives in a big city or a rural town—all children and youth deserve adequate funding for services and programs. Our tools, including the national trends in state funding analysis and our federal funding database, allow you to explore how money flows to different regions of the country.

For an inside look at how states and communities of different sizes are using their federal relief funds, see our American Rescue Plan profiles, including ones on New Mexico and Deschutes County, OR. We also have case studies on generating new revenue in Nebraska and Escambia County, FL.

March Newsletter

The Importance of Children’s Funding Coordinators

What’s New

In Case You Missed It

Spotlight on Rural Funding

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